Mike Vrabel just said what all Patriots fans felt about this week's officiating crew

Because the NFL has plenty of officials with a reputation for being flag-happy, fans across the league, including those in New England, pay close attention to who is on duty for their team's games.

Although there wasn't much to say about the referees ahead of their matchup with the Raiders on Sunday, it was quickly apparent they would be a fixture for all four quarters, and unfortunately, that's what both teams had to deal with for the entire game.

In just the first half, there were already multiple pass interference calls on both teams for big yardage gains, some of which really hurt the Patriots. By the end of the game, 20 penalties were accepted between both teams for 217 yards.

It was an absolute disaster and it simply cannot all be blamed on the player. The referees wanted their screen time, and Mike Vrabel made that clear in his post-game press conference when he reflected on the intentional grounding call on Drake Maye.

It became almost a joke every time a flag was thrown, because it was getting ridiculous, and although much of that fell on the officiating crew, Vrabel wasn't ready to let his team off the hook.

Mike Vrabel doesn't sugarcoat his frustration over the penalties in the Patriots' win

At the end of the game, the Patriots were hit with 12 penalties for 116 yards, a new season high, some of which were avoidable and only made their job more difficult.

Although they stayed out of their own way for the most part, there were still too many penalties for careless mistakes, most of which came from special teams (Mike Brown with 2 flags) and pre-snap penalties on Morgan Moses and Ben Brown.

Given their experience in the league, there's no reason to rack up multiple of the same penalties, and Vrabel emphasized that to reporters after the game. He summed it up well, as Patriots fans felt, saying the penalties "are ridiculous," and while he puts most of that responsibility on the players, he can't overlook how involved the referees were when they shouldn't have been.

This hasn't been a massive problem for the team so far this season, so seeing the flags pile up in another must-win game was far from great.

The Patriots are lucky it wasn't something that ultimately dictated the outcome of the game, as they did record more penalty yards than the Raiders, which has happened to them over the past two years.

Moving forward, they'll have to clean up their game, particularly on the offensive line, to avoid making the offense's job even harder. Pre-snap penalties are borderline unacceptable, especially when the offenders are seasoned veterans, and it's fair to assume Vrabel won't tolerate this kind of performance for much longer this season.

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